Culinary Biography

Mokhtar Alkhanshali, hijo de inmigrantes yemeníes, ha crecido en el barrio más conflictivo de San Francisco y a sus veinticuatro años es incapaz de pagarse la universidad. Mientras trabaja de portero en un bloque de pisos de lujo, descubre que el café, al igual que él, tiene su origen en Yemen, por lo que decide investigar la historia y la producción de esta antiquísima bebida viajando al país de sus antepasados.

Born and raised in New York to a food-phobic mother and food-fanatical father, Elissa was trained early on that fancy is always best. After a childhood spent dining everywhere from Le Pavillion to La Grenouille, she devoted her life to all things gastronomical, from the rare game birds she served at elaborate dinner parties in an apartment so tiny that guests couldn’t turn around to the eight timbale molds she bought while working at Dean & DeLuca, just so she could make tall food.

For Karen Blixen var gastronomi en kunst på lige fod med litteratur, musik og maleri. Derfor gik hun til gastronomien med dannelse, selvbevidsthed, passion, ufravigelige kvalitetskrav og høje forventninger. Med en ukuelig vilje lykkedes det Blixen at stable et køkken op på farmen i Afrika. Hendes madlavning gik fra et absolut nulpunkt hvad angik håndelag, udstyr og råvarer og endte med at blive kaldt det afrikanske kontinents svar på Ritz. Da hun blev forfatter lagde hun kogekunsten på hylden - i hvert fald den udførende del.

A must-have anthology of the leading Black women and femmes shaping today’s food and hospitality landscape—from farm to table and beyond—chronicling their passions and motivations, lessons learned and hard-won wisdom, personal recipes, and more.

Khabaar is a food memoir and personal narrative that braids the global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration, and indenture. Focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, the book questions: What does it mean to belong, and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country?

Extra sauce is how I like my pizza and also how I fall in love. Extra sauce is for sopping, dunking, and licking off your plate. Licking off your fingers. It is a tiny demand for freedom and hedonism. Life has told you this is the amount of joy you get, and you say: That is simply not enough. At...

Suzanne Barr’s journey to become a chef started when she was 30. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer and she moved home to Florida to take care of her. Suzanne escorted her mother to doctor’s appointments, bathed her, and kept her company, but the hardest part of the experience was that she didn’t know how to cook for her. She didn’t even know where to begin.

No Lucks Given, by Chef Brother Luck, is a powerful reflection on the most vital parts of the human experience: identity, community, and work. Packed with pain, passion, honor, and hope, No Lucks Given is an encouragement to everyone who has ever doubted themselves or God, whether they grew up on the streets or not—life is hard, but there is hope.

After wandering through the valley of despair...facing trauma. I stumbled upon baking and it saved my life.

Mark H. Brezinski is a forty-five-year veteran of the dynamic restaurant industry. A graduate of the famed School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, Mark went on to create or co-create multiple nationally acclaimed restaurant companies. His experiences span the globe in search of culinary discoveries and inspirations with industry icons like the late Norman Brinker, Paul Fleming, Phil Romano, and chefs Michael Mina and Mark Miller. This book takes you to all of these places and more, while telling behind-the-scenes stories.

重要なのは、何かを選ぶこと。選ばなければ、人生は始まらない。選ばざるを得なかった仕事に黙々と熱狂する。運命に従え。道は開ける。

When he first visited Paris as a young student, artist Louis Jansen van Vuuren could never have imagined that one day he would end up owning a château in rural France. Almost French is the entertaining, often hilarious account of his induction over the past 21 years into all things French: snooty waiters, highbrow countesses, numerous faux pas with the French language and, of course, encounters with the infamous French bureaucracy.

Baking is messy. So is the story of Diane Roark’s life. This book tells the intensely riveting story of how Diane grew up with an alcoholic mother. How she had a special needs son, who underwent 18 surgeries and died twice in her arms. Diane chronicles the many heartaches she faced in honest and raw detail. The story doesn’t end in heartache. This memoir is about finding God’s blessings in the midst of difficult circumstances. It’s about how one woman ultimately found God’s love in the journey of forgiveness, healing, hope, and joy.

Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything he pursued. From wrestling, ballooning, underwater exploration, and car and boat racing to founding Benihana, Rocky's passion for life infected all around him and accelerated the exchange of Japanese culture and cuisine with America. Rocky's rags to riches story, from dishwasher and busboy to owner of a multi-million-dollar restaurant empire, is an American dream realized unlike any other.

Vom Schulabbrecher aus der Provinz zum Sternekoch mit Bundesverdienstkreuz - die Geschichte von Max Strohe ist einzigartig. Und die Art, wie er davon erzählt, ist es auch. Max Strohe ist Schulabbrecher und Kochlehrling aus Sinzig am Rhein. Er hat die zweifelhafte Gabe, alles vor die Wand zu fahren. Zuallererst das eigene Leben. Er kocht mit offenem Herzen, aber lebt von der Hand in den Mund. Bis er mit fünfzehn seinem Vater begegnet, einem Lebemann und unter Antiquitätenhändlern eine Koryphäe. An seiner Seite lernt er eine Welt kennen, in der guter Geschmack ein Vermögen wert ist.

Alexander Herrmann ist mit zwei Michelin-Sternen und diversen TV-Auftritten einer der erfolgreichsten deutschen Spitzenköche. In diesem Hörbuch erzählt er erstmals aus seinem Leben - und aus seiner Küche. Anekdotenreich beschreibt Herrmann, wie er vom beschaulichen oberfränkischen Wirsberg aus seine einzig­artige Karriere als Spitzenkoch und Multi-Unternehmer startete. Neben autobiografischen Einblicken ist es ihm aber auch ein Anliegen, den Leser an den Alltag hinter den Kulissen der Sterneküche heranzuführen.

In this irreverent romp through the history of food via the Seven Deadly Sins, Mikey Robins uncovers the most bizarre food-related stories of all time. From the Ancient Egyptians to the Romans, from the medieval monarchs to our current obsession with celebrity chefs, our forebears have left their mark on our habits and social mores, our plates and our palates, telling us one truth above all: where there is food, there is folly.

Hannah Howard is a Columbia University freshman when she lands a hostess job at Picholine, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan. Eighteen years old and eager to learn, she’s invigorated by the manic energy and knife-sharp focus of the crew. By day Hannah explores the Columbia arts scene, struggling to find her place. By night she’s intoxicated by boxes of heady truffles and intrigued by the food industry’s insiders. She’s hungry for knowledge, success, and love, but she’s also ravenous because she hasn’t eaten more than yogurt and coffee in days.

Born in Pula, on the Istrian peninsula, Lidia grew up surrounded by love and security, learning the art of Italian cooking from her beloved grandmother. But when Istria was annexed by a communist regime, Lidia’s family fled to Trieste, where they spent two years in a refugee camp waiting for visas to enter the United States. When she finally arrived in New York, Lidia soon began working in restaurants, the first step on a path that led to her becoming one of the most revered chefs and businesswomen in the country.

This is the story of how one expat woman left her beloved behind when she moved to France - her beloved kale, that is. Unable to find le chou kale anywhere upon moving to the City of Light with her new husband, and despite not really speaking French, Kristen Beddard launched a crusade to single-handedly bring kale to the country of croissants and cheese.